You didn’t answer my question about judging yourself in your songs, but is it mere coincidence that Faust (« Faust Arp ») as well as Mephistopholes (« Videotape ») get a mention? The devil and the man who sold his soul to the devil?

/Faust ARP/
A bit of a mystery, this one: its name has cropped up on band messages online, but, speaking to NME, a spokesperson confirmed it has not been played live before and is not a retitled old song. An experimental, electronic effort maybe?

Yorke is certainly striving to find a new creative methodology. « The more you absorb yourself in the present tense, the more likely that what you write will be good, » he says. « Especially in this fucking town, where everybody’s sitting in front of their fesks for far too long, endlessly sweating over words that don’t ever get heard. People are obsessive in this city and work becomes an end in itself. » Given the three-year gestation period for In Rainbows, and Radiohead’s long-term ‘no pain, no gain’ attitude towards their work, his words come as a surprise. « There’s no point in writing notes and notes and notes and notes, » he continues, repeating words as he does habitually. « The polar opposite of that is Michael Stipe, who absorbs himself in other people and the life around him, and that’s where he gets his ideas. I’m not like that, but I absolutely understand why he does it. Neil Young claims he writes lyrics and doesn’t go back to them. If he does, he says, the worse they become. But my God, that’s scary. I mean, Faust Arp is the exact opposite of that, pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages until eventually, the good ones stick. »